2025-26 Topps Chrome Jeremiah Fears RayWave Refractor RC IP Auto #257 New Orleans Pelicans CGC/JSA Authentic Autograph

No Fears in the Tunnel — Jeremiah Fears' Topps Chrome RayWave Refractor

The only way to get his rookie signature on an NBA-licensed card — and we watched it happen in a hallway.

Jeremiah Fears wears the number zero on his jersey. No Fears. Both boys are drawn to him for exactly that reason — the way he plays like the number on his back is a dare, not a decoration. It's his rookie season with the Pelicans, and they were genuinely nervous waiting for him in the tunnel — the good kind of nervous, the kind that comes right before meeting someone whose game you actually love.

He didn't let them stay nervous for long. Fears stopped completely — a card for each of the boys, and one for me as well. His only ask was black ink. We'd learned that lesson before, so we came prepared with a paint pen.

Here's what makes this one worth explaining: Fears signs exclusively for Panini. But Panini no longer holds the NBA license — Topps does — and Topps can't put his autograph on anything pack-pulled. Which means there is currently no way to pull an NBA-licensed rookie autograph of Jeremiah Fears from a box. An in-person signature, witnessed and documented, is the only version that exists. This is that version.

Caeden handed him the RayWave Refractor. Fears set it on the book and signed it start to finish, the camera never leaving the card — then, without missing a beat, signed one of my own cards on the same book before he moved on. That continuous, uninterrupted footage is what makes this a Provenance Artifact — not reliant on memory or trust, just the tape.

There's a second card from that same night that's a little more human. It's on film too, but I looked up mid-signature — the glasses catch a lot, but not everything — so only part of that autograph is documented on camera. Christian's own Fears card came later, signed off to the side, no camera on it at all. Both are just as real. They just don't carry the same kind of proof this one does.

The tunnel doesn't care what license anyone holds — that night, all it took was two nervous boys, a black paint pen, and a rookie who didn't hesitate.
Kia Center, Orlando, January 11, 2026

Kia Center, Orlando, January, 11, 2026